Upcoming Changes for Adult Content: Answers to Questions

There's nothing wrong with the forum software itself (I assume that's what you're talking about). I mod a couple of vBulletin-based boards, and participate in several others, and the software is great! But it does need a forum administrator who actually has an interest in keeping the software up-to-date. Preferably a forum admin who does not choose crippling an entire forum as a workaround to applying two-year-old security updates as a means of preserving forum functionality.

No. The *real* switch will happen after all the land speculators swoop in on all available Pornodelphia land and resell it to those who are *required* by Linden Labs *mandate* to locate their business there, at a 10,000% markup.

Seriously. The speculators are absolutely DROOLING all over this virtual gold mine, and - according to Blondin, it has LL's blessing!

QFE.

So, we are back to dictating what people can and cannot do within their own residences and, worse yet, we are putting the onus on estate owners to police their residents' activities within their leased land, to the point of having to monitor the SL Events Calendar to make sure his or her residents aren't advertising adult activities on his or her mature lands.

What this basically boils down to is that, if I, as a renter, decide to hold a gigantic orgy in my private bedroom and advertise it in Events, then if someone ARs my indiscretion, then my estate owner gets screwed as well.

I foresee rental properties becoming very short in supply in the near future, as estate owners will be forced to choose whether to get insanely involved in their residents' affairs, or simply flag their entire estates as "adult" in order to avoid liability, at the cost of half their renters.

And, if whole estates get flagged as "adult" as a means of protecting estate owners from unnecessary liability, then what of child avatars who find themselves living on adult-flagged lands. Are they going to become cannon-fodder for anyone who has a chip on their shoulder or who generally dislike child avatars, who decide to AR child avatars for ageplay simply for being on adult-flagged land, since LL has so far refused to define what ageplay even is?

I think I have just realized where LL's "2-4%" figure came from. It represents the percentage of SL's total population who will be aware of the speeding train moments before being hit by it.

I *think* this is correct, but there's no guarantee. As best I can read the map, it seems Ursula could get quite large just by adding more regions, whereas the other recent zoned areas (Bay City, Nautilus City) were pretty constrained. (Bay City will still grow some, but not a lot.) So Ursula may not be quite the same gold mine. Yet I'm sure speculators will try to make a quick buck during shortages between expansions, at least.

Yes. This is indeed a big problem although not a new problem: it first surfaced when LL began talking about landowners being responsible for restricting parcel access to IDV age-verified only.

Back then during the IDV beta, I told my tenants about IDV and age-restricted parcels, and that they were responsible for flagging their own parcels. Because they each have separate land-ownership groups, they can do this themselves, and can change the setting whenever they want. (AFAIK, nobody ever has.)

Of course this didn't really get me off the AR hook (nor, potentially, legally), but at least the tenants had some flexibility. This time around, I'll have to give them a very different and less appealing choice: move to Ursula, or not. Just like everybody else, I guess. And it still won't get me off the hook.

Yes, and this appears to be the "live" rollout of that beta with three issues "addressed":

i) Aristotle - LL has realised that Aristotle doesn't deliver what it claims, doesn't work for many people, isn't trusted by many people and is no more effective at age verification than payment information.

LL's Solution: Allow Payment information as a means of adult verification

ii) Parcel restrictions - restricting a parcel to verified accounts only is completely broken (doesn't work above 100m above ground, doesn't actually prevent anything apart from sitting on adult material, etc.)

LL's Solution: Require an entire sim to be restricted to verified accounts if any parcel contains adult material

iii) Cam distances - it is possible to see a neighbouring sim, regardless of its restriction level

LL's Solution: Require that a non-adult sim cannot be joined to an adult sim, i.e. if any sim in a contiguous set of joined sim is adult, the entire set must be adult

(ii) and (iii) when applied to mainland means a new adult continent and a relocation plan.



Matthew

Thanks for the link.

Just as a technical note: The MP3 files for the brown bag audio are MASSIVE! There is no reason for voice chat to be 128kbps/44.1kHz stereo audio. Recommend encoding as 32kbps/11kHz/mono files instead. This will result in files that are 32x smaller while still being clear enough for voice.

I for one said that this will happen, yes maybe it will at some point in the future, but LL's Lawyer Marty said at the meeting that when this is in the pipeline then more meetings will be held as are happening now to discuss the adult content, so i wouldn't worry about it happening anytime soon imho.



IIRC after that episode no ones information was compromised in the real world and where did you get the information that it was a "kid" that did it? I have been verified on "Aristotle" since it began and as yet have not had any of my data stolen, sold or misused and i would know if it had been



They have a knack of doing this, but as there are no certain facts in stone yet, except that this will go ahead at some point, would it not be better to try and contribute towards these changes as they happen and instead of living on "What ifs" lets stick to the facts as they now present themselves. I am no LL lover with some of the things they do, but i do acknowledge that it is their playground and I am a guest here, albeit a paying one, however baseline is that if this really upsets people to the degree i see here then perhaps for those it maybe worth pulling the plug on SL before they work themselves into a deep depression.

Harsh fact is that we have NO control over what LL does with SL and should be happy that they are even asking our opinions about these matters. But thats just my opinion

Now onto the notecard that you quoted



I didn't hear age verification just verification as was stated that SL is an 18+ service. It is sims that will be flagged as ""ADULT" not "Mature" that are affected. The way this is written gives the impression it is mature sims that you have to verified to access when it is ADULT sims at this time, its this kind of misinformation that creates needless problems for some imo.



he actually said that if there was enough demand LL will look at and consider creating a pure PG continent.



a long time down the line and will will apparently have more meetings when this is going to happen



Don't you mean "ADULT" as you said you had mature and some PG sims.



"exclusive group"? i didn't see any exclusivity in who was there just a cross section of SL and i hope LL continues to give others a chance to speak at these meetings rather than picking those that have already had an input into a particular meeting, rather than re-asking those that asked LL to attend the next meetings. That is what then creates exclusivity imo and is inherently wrong as many here deserve a voice at the meetings.

One user totally agrees with this one Especially where she said she had a 6/7000 member group, not good passing such misinformation out on that scale.

Welcome folks to the MOST UNPREDICTABLE EXPERIENCE in your Second Life. I'm positive a new player will enjoy the experience of trying to teleport somewhere... anywhere, uh... TP failed, Tp failed, TP failed. I'm not sure, but I'd say being stuck on noob island would mean that noob exits Second Life faster than ever before. This is far worse than ban lines ever dreamed of being. I predict when people can't go where they need/want to go, well then they will just not involve SL in their lives at all.

I suppose this is why most pizzas are ordered online, just to give a small example of where text-based interfaces have usurped voice-only interfaces in modern society.

ah yes, but allow me to be pedantic and point out that there's a big difference between ordering something that has a defined set of variables and something more complex. Although for what that brown bag actually achieved it would have been better off being a text based Q&A on a separate forum thread. There was no reason to drag people in - considering all they did was take questions and provide essentially a one paragraph answer.

now I'm going to have a listen to the audio and roll my eyes a little more..

ok.. I thought it had been posted.. obviously not.

I had a look at the page from last month and noticed there still wasnt text transcripts from the last couple. and the brownbag from last week or was it the week before? still isn't there..

First off, I don't own a business or even live on the Mainland...but I've read every single post in this thread and hundreds in the now-locked ones. Why? Because it became painfully obvious early on that this policy not only represents a further shift away from the free and open +18 World we've all come to love (and in some cases depend on emotionally and financially) but that this is ultimately going to affect every one of us regardless of where we live or what we do here.

Through all the sub-threads, tech-talk, trolling, silliness, venting, a smattering of answers and the dozens of completely reasonable and viable alternatives suggested, I keep asking myself, "what are you thinking, LL?" You *must* realize the upheaval this will cause across all sectors and lifestyles on the grid...if not from the actual re-locations then from the many unsolved verification issues. You *must* realize that you're stepping out onto the slipperiest(?) slope of all slopes. You *must* realize that this could easily lead to a transformation of SL culture from one of freedom, tolerance and diverse self-expression to one of fear, suspicion and repression...not to mention the economic ramifications. And yet you push forward...

While there probably isn't anything I can add that hasn't been said already far more eloquently and comprehensively, here are a few random thoughts for LL in no particular order:

1) You may have already decided that even the worst-case losses resulting from this policy are *acceptable* to your long-term plans, whatever they may be...but I think you've failed to realize (or don't care) how much you've already done to erode the enthusiasm and hope many of us had for a "better-than-RL" virtual world by even entertaining this concept to begin with. While one person's zoning may be another person's segregation, since when has trying to legislate and enforce anything to do with morality EVER worked? The offending behaviors always continue - they just move from the light into the shadows. Good thing we don't have flashlights anymore like in the early days...wouldn't want to illuminate anything unpredictable...lol.

2) I certainly don't expect you to post minutes of your internal meetings or treat us like equal partners or anything...we're not. I get it. But I find it to be less than transparent (and less than a discussion) when "it's not part of the plan" is an answer given to questions regarding the very plan that: a) we're supposed to be shaping with our feedback, b) that you've said from the beginning is undecided in it's major points and c) that server code is already being rolled out for. I can understand the need for some kind of *estate management* of the mainland, but forcing people to move based on individual judgments of broad and ultimately arbitrary definitions is just wrong. Why not make all this voluntary? You're changing the rules again mid-stream...and though you can - you shouldn't. In fact, your attitude so far seems to show not only a high disregard for alternative resident input, but also a troubling lack of appreciation for the complexities and subtleties of running a business or managing property in-world, the RL emotional and financial investment we all have in our builds/parcels, and it seems (sometimes) even the technical knowledge of how your *own* programming and services currently function...or don't.

3) I don't think it's that uncommon for a company that's profitable and has grown beyond a certain size to become alienated from their customers and more concerned with their bottom line and the press than with maintaining their original *mission statement*. I hate to see it happen but it does...which is why when I HAVE A CHOICE I will always choose a company with superior customer service and responsiveness to customer suggestions, even over other considerations...when I have a choice, that is. I hope some truly comparable choices emerge soon...NOT because I want you/SL to fail...but because i think that actual competition is the only thing that will force a better service and better behavior from you towards the *extremely* loyal group of paying beta testers you've had right here all along...

/end rant

jay

btw - much respect to all the very intelligent and passionate people in this thread. I feel for everyone in here who's just trying to follow even a simple business plan.

No more than landlords renting out property on a PG sim need to police all their residents.

I'm sorry, but since when are landlords on mainland responsible for the activities of their tenants? Is that really the case?

It makes no difference whether someone owns land or is a resident - yes, it matters what they do on their property, if they choose to change their private property into a place that hosts public events....

And again, since when are landlords responsible for the activities of their tenants? If a tenant chooses to have a public event on their private property, AND it is Adult AND it gets ARed, then the correct reaction to that AR is to discipline the resident for doing Adult things on non-Adult land. What will the landlord have to do with it?

I could agree with this if SL was 100% voice, which it isnt even close. Yet SL is 100% text.

Be fair: those so-called banks were offering such high levels of interest that they could not possibly have been anything but a Ponzi scheme. And so it turned out.

I really wish people would stop using issues like this as a platform for attacking Christianity. *I* am one of those "God fearing church going types", and yet, according to Blondin's definition, *I* am Adult Content, because for 4-6 hours every day, you can find me on a pole, in various states of dress, entertaining the masses.

Technically, nothing less than a TEXT TRANSCRIPT is acceptable. *sigh*

This original set of posts started out because I had a shot at LL for not tailoring their medium for communication to their audience. They appeared to use the same set up that businesses would for their inworld meetings. i.e. voice rather than using text, which is what the majority of us use.

I'm deaf and mute in sl and given a choice between listening to audio and reading a transcript for anything, I'll take the transcript every time.

As we well know though, LL isn't about providing information to suit the audience.

Caveat emptor. Your prefer in loco parentis?

Unfortunately according to mainstream media and opinion you're an oddity. Your post reminded me of that dancing nun story I saw the other week. She was an adult dancer before she joined the church and now dances in praise of God. Strictly speaking there's nothing newsworthy about it at all, lots of religions dance, but in this case I surmise that her background gave it the titillation factor.

Welcome to the wonderful world of stereotyping, where tolerance is vanishing.

If you were a furry you'd be slapped with the title of crazy, as someone who does adult things you're in the pervert camp, if you were a child avie you'd be accused of encouraging paedophilia..

As for you falling under that original sweeping generalisation, I suspect not. I suspect your relationship with your God is more healthy than that and you believe your God is more about love and tolerance than retribution and thin lippedness.

Of course I could be wrong.

I caveated plenty of emptor, and didn't put a penny of my own money in them. I caveated all over the place during the land bubble, too, and Linden Labs was correct in acting to burst it.
Res ipsa loquitur, ignorantia juris non excusat. Linden labs was in danger of being found liable of conspiracy, or at least negligence, if they allowed these schemes to continue.

People have often compared SL with the bad days of the Wild West - Snake-Oil salesmen, swindlers, robbers, a brothel on every corner, and general lawlessness and corruption.

I tend to agree, and LL cracking down on the gambling and swindlers ("banks" certainly hasn't led to SL's demise. Now they want to clean up on the extreme sex, not by banning them (as they have done with other issues, much to the outcry of residents) but by creating a specific area for them.

I see this as LL trying to tame the wild west. Whether they will succeed is another thing, of course, and the Wild West won't be the same afterwards. I don't see this as the end of SL, just another change in the process of moving it in the direction LL want the world to grow.

Banking and gambling are two examples of LL making changes to adapt to United States law, which they must abide by, because they are located in the USA.

There was an online gambling law passed, and then a banking regulation/currency speculation law as well.

Because LL didn't want to be stuck with all the regulation, recordkeeping and oversight required by financial institutions in the US, they decided to get out of the "banking enabling" business.
Because they didn't want all the hassles required by the new online gambling laws, they decided to get rid of it.

Frankly, LL has been ducking US currency speculation regulations for some time now, because the LInden dollar has an exchange rate with US currency, and LL runs an exchange.

I completely understand about banking and gambling. But this little fiaso is *completely voluntary*. there is quite literally *nobody* forcing this change on LL. this is something that *they* decided was a *good idea*!

It's apples and oranges

-V-